The first week I lived in New Jersey, my coming here after 25 years in Flint and 8 in Oak Park, I asked a waitress if I could have Pop with my meal. She looked at me straight faced and said, he's the little old guy who cleans up in the kitchen, but I'll ask him if he wants to join you when he finishes the floor. Afer the embarrasing and uproarious ribbing I took from my work dining colleagues, I've been carefully asking for Soda for 31 years now without much fail. It only took one episode of being the joke of the restaurant to change my Michigan habits fast. Not as painful a a slap to the head, but just as effective. I still miss Michigan.

BJ - your story is hysterical! I ordered a Coke in the South (and this was before Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Caffeine Free Coke, etc.) and they asked me what kind...little did I know that ordering a Coke meant "I'll have a pop." So, looking blankly at the waitress, I asked what kind they had and was informed that they had Coca-Cola, 7-up, Dr. Pepper and Tab...now tell me that isn't messed up!!!

You can even get berated in Michigan... my college roommate was from New York (say no MOwah).

One night we went to get liquor and supplies and she told me to go get some soda, so I brought up some club soda up to the cashier. She says "WTF is this!?!" I told her I didn't know why she wanted it either. And she got really miffed about it, like I was the one that was crazy.

The "coke" thing in the South used to confuse me too... although I do use "kleenex" for when I want a tissue... then again, there aren't different flavors of tissues...

Thanks for commenting. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.

"Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City" by Gordon Young

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Flint Expatriates

A blog for the long-lost residents of the Vehicle City by Gordon Young

"I grew up on the Eastside and recall the unexplained pride I felt when the 3:30 Buick factory whistle blew and the roughly dressed workers poured out of the General Motors labyrinth swinging their lunch pails. Some were headed for home and some for the corner bar, but all with the determined step of an army after a battle won. I somehow felt as if I were a part of this giant assembly line and the city it fed."